The properties and regulation of the mammalian polyamine transport system are still poorly understood. In estrogen-responsive ZR-75-1 human breast cancer cells, which display low polyamine biosynthetic activity, putrescine and spermidine were internalized with high affinity (Km = 3.7 and 0.5 microM, respectively) via a single class of saturable transporter shared by both substrate types, or via distinct but closely similar carriers. The Vmax, but not the Km of polyamine transport was rapidly and synergistically up-regulated by estrogens and insulin. The steady decay in transport activity observed in hormone-deprived cells was accelerated by retinoic acid. The enhancement of uptake activity resulting from polyamine depletion was amplified 3-fold by estrogens and insulin despite profound growth inhibition, indicating that the cooperative hormonal induction of polyamine transport is dissociated from cell growth status. Polyamine uptake was under feedback inhibition by at least three distinct mechanisms in these cells, namely (i) the induction of a short-lived protein not actively synthesized without ongoing uptake or upon polyamine deletion; (ii) a more latent, protein synthesis-independent "trans-inhibition" mechanism; and (iii) a post-carrier, cycloheximide-sensitive mechanism limiting substrate accumulation. The complexity of these multiple levels of feedback transport inhibition is in keeping with the cytotoxicity of excessive polyamine content.